February 18, 2011

Make Something! Embroidery Floss Bobbins

I don't know about you...but I hate it when things get really disorganized! Especially in my creative area. One thing that gets messy really quickly is my stash of embroidery floss. We have containers to keep them stored by 'warm', 'cool' and 'neutral' tones. Yet...when you open them...

Such a disaster! I had a quick and easy idea for making this mess into something much prettier. The best part is that I can use up all of the cardboard I have laying around. Because, yes, I have cardboard...laying around.

*paper scissors OR a box cutter/exacto knife (this is to cut the cardboard)

*embroidery floss that desparately wants to be organized

It is totally up to you (and your thread storage system) as to what size you make these bobbins. Feel free to modify the size to fit your needs! I'll tell you what I did so you have a point of reference.

Cut the cardboard into 2 inch by 4 inch rectangles.

Cut the fabric into 5 by 5 inch squares.

Cover the cardboard in your preferred glue.

Wrap the fabric tightly around the cardboard, being sure to glue the edges of fabric together to prevent fraying later on.

Once the glue has dried (with Fabri Tac, it only takes a minute!), cut the edges of your fabric to get rid of the fraying edges. You can use pinking shears or just your regular fabric scissors. The glue should prevent any fraying.

Continue to cut, glue and wrap as many little bobbins as you wish! Have fun with patterns and colors to coordinate with your thread (that is what I did for this example) OR you can go for a nice clean look and wrap your cardboard all in muslin or linen. That would be really nice to let your thread colors stand out on their own.

The fun part - wrap the thread around your newly created bobbins!

This just looks so much more organized and definitely more inspiring! Although I do love the fun of the prints, I think I'm going to organize the entire collection by wrapping the cardboard in un-dyed muslin. This will be quite a large project but I promise to show you when it is eventually (slowly but surely) completed!!

In order to be aware of your thread color number, you could place a little sticker on the fabric and write in the number. I think I'll be doing that when I organize the whole stash. This way, if you have multiple skeins of floss in the same color, they can all be condensed onto one bobbin!

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Make Something! Embroidery Floss Bobbins

I don't know about you...but I hate it when things get really disorganized! Especially in my creative area. One thing that gets messy really quickly is my stash of embroidery floss. We have containers to keep them stored by 'warm', 'cool' and 'neutral' tones. Yet...when you open them...

Such a disaster! I had a quick and easy idea for making this mess into something much prettier. The best part is that I can use up all of the cardboard I have laying around. Because, yes, I have cardboard...laying around.

*paper scissors OR a box cutter/exacto knife (this is to cut the cardboard)

*embroidery floss that desparately wants to be organized

It is totally up to you (and your thread storage system) as to what size you make these bobbins. Feel free to modify the size to fit your needs! I'll tell you what I did so you have a point of reference.

Cut the cardboard into 2 inch by 4 inch rectangles.

Cut the fabric into 5 by 5 inch squares.

Cover the cardboard in your preferred glue.

Wrap the fabric tightly around the cardboard, being sure to glue the edges of fabric together to prevent fraying later on.

Once the glue has dried (with Fabri Tac, it only takes a minute!), cut the edges of your fabric to get rid of the fraying edges. You can use pinking shears or just your regular fabric scissors. The glue should prevent any fraying.

Continue to cut, glue and wrap as many little bobbins as you wish! Have fun with patterns and colors to coordinate with your thread (that is what I did for this example) OR you can go for a nice clean look and wrap your cardboard all in muslin or linen. That would be really nice to let your thread colors stand out on their own.

The fun part - wrap the thread around your newly created bobbins!

This just looks so much more organized and definitely more inspiring! Although I do love the fun of the prints, I think I'm going to organize the entire collection by wrapping the cardboard in un-dyed muslin. This will be quite a large project but I promise to show you when it is eventually (slowly but surely) completed!!

In order to be aware of your thread color number, you could place a little sticker on the fabric and write in the number. I think I'll be doing that when I organize the whole stash. This way, if you have multiple skeins of floss in the same color, they can all be condensed onto one bobbin!